Why do Native Americans get a monthly federal check just for being Indian? And can’t white people sue Indians? These and other false narratives are still used to justify ruinous private and public acts. David Bland’s Slings & Arrows: How Toxic Narratives Perpetuate Poverty in Indian Country is an exemplar of such “Narrative Economics” described by Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller in his 2019 bestseller. Slings & Arrows shows Shiller’s theory in unconscionable practice. Bland’s book is “a story about stories that will make you look at Indian Country with new eyes,” according to former Wall Street Journal finance columnist Jonathan Clements.
Over the course of a 40-year career, Bland witnessed firsthand the power of narrative economics that stifles initiative, hinders advancement, and injures good people. “When you look at the impact these stories have on bankers and investors in Indian Country, you begin to see that capital is less available to Indians not just because of Indian Trust land, but the lack of trust in Indians,” Bland writes.
Slings & Arrows is an “intelligent, informative book” that blows the whistle on this system. “The mistake is still being made, often with tragic consequences, by even well-meaning non-Indians in relation to our Native American neighbors,” wrote Rev. Carter Heyward PhD, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, in her review. Bland is a truth-teller, and problem-solver. He’s given us a new narrative that is “Truly inspiring,” says Lance Morgan, Winnebago tribal leader and CEO of Ho-Chunk, Inc.
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